I've had Covid-19 and this is how I coped

[MikeTheThinker]

Everywhere we look and listen there's huge speculation about what catching C19 (Covid-19) actually means to us personally.

I'm asking those who have or have had C19 - or those who have helped someone who has - to describe for the rest of us just what it is/was like - please?

 

The request is not for prurient interest's sake, but to try to shed a little real light on an area where - for most - it's more like avoiding demons in the dark.

 

Will you help us, please?

 

[shyVRS245]

Thursday 27th February I was getting up after a nightshift and thirstier than usual thought I was getting a sore throat. Went to work for my second nightshift and during the night had a dry tickly cough start. At this point I had no idea what I was getting. Went home tried to sleep nut consistent cough so got very little sleep. Friday 28th February went to work (don't work with anyone my colleague is 100 metres away from me) for my final shift before having 3 rest days off. Very tired by Saturday morning and spent all day in bed. Got up at 6pm to have dinner but barely ate half of it and told my wife I would finish it off in the morning. That night got a very high fever and sweating like sitting in a sauna all night and couldn't cool down even with paracetamol. Coughing no sleep at all. Got up microwaved my dinner from Saturday took one mouthful struggled to swallow it and felt sick. Went back to bed. Sunday night managed a bowl of chicken/mushroom soup. Sunday night more fever more sweating. Monday morning no breakfast, no lunch managed a small tea. Coughing all the time it wouldn't stop. Monday night fever for the third time no sleep coughing. Tuesday didn't go to work due to lack of sleep. Walked to local surgery to get help for whatever I had and when I described my symptons they would not let me see anyone sent me home told to ring 111. Tuesday no breakfast no lunch small tea. Tuesday night 4th night of fever and sweating should have phoned in sick but told Boss I would be in work on Wednesday which was a mistake as I felt awful during my 12 hour shift. Wednesday morning no breakfast no lunch small tea. Wednesday fever and sweating for the 5th and final time. Back to work Thursday no breakfast no lunch small tea, coughing throughout. With hindsight I should have stayed at home Wednesday and Thursday but I work on my own Boss is 100metres away in his office. Thursday night no fever but still coughing. Friday no breakfast no lunch small tea went to work for nightshift. Saturday similar to Friday meal wise went for 2nd nightshift. Final nightshift on Sunday night then 3 rest days spent coughing at home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, appetite slowly returning able to eat breakfast and tea. During the fever period days 2 to 6 had a headache for 2 days probably caused by not drinking enough water. After 2 weeks finally able to sleep better but still coughing. After 3 weeks lungs felt back to normal and got on my exercise bike for a 10 minute and 13 minute session 2 hours later. Recovered quickly and no coughing and lungs felt back to normal. I was a very fit teenager training with Leicestershire County cricketers such as David Gower and Jon Agnew and my resting heart rate was 56bpm at age 20. Now at 55 my resting heart rate is 66bpm. I am in good health but breathing was difficult at times due to a wheezy chest and felt like pneumonia at times. Never smoked but anyone with a lung condition is really going to struggle with this strain of flu. This much worse than the 2 times I have had flu in the past and at times I thought I had been run over by a small truck. My wife was praying for me constantly and she was very worried. It's now 24 days since I contracted it probably from a visiting Italian lorry driver as we have stores in Milan and Bologna in northern Italy. Just like to say non of my 5 work colleagues who share the office with me became infected and neither didmt wife. I stayed in the house when I wasn't at work but I should have stayed off work for 8 days rather than go back after 6 days knowing what I now know about this virus. I believe you are most infectious in the first 7 days.

[Defenderben]

So was that a confirmed cv19 or your assumption that you have had it?

 

Not being disrespectful but asking if it was confirmed?

[Ootohere]

Hopefully only those that were tested and had a confirmed result of having Covid 19 will be posting, or have experience of treating someone with it.

[shyVRS245]

9 minutes ago, Defenderben said:

So was that a confirmed cv19 or your assumption that you have had it?

 

Not being disrespectful but asking if it was confirmed?

Not confirmed because no one available to test me just my honest description of the symptons which all the experts described on TV might I unfortunately lived through and trying to give reassurance that if you are fit you can recover fully within 3 weeks and I believe have a natural immunity to it we just don't know who won't catch it. Doubters than think what they like but rest assured there are plenty of people out there that have caught this, lived through it and we should be proud as a Nation that our mortality rates are much lower than France, Spain and particularly Italy. Those that need proof I have some advice for you "IGNORANCE IS BLISS" and "EDUCATION IS POWER".

[PetrolDave]

13 minutes ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

Hopefully only those that were tested and had a confirmed result of having Covid 19 will be posting

Given that for the past week only those admitted to hospital have been tested that will exclude anyone who has had all the symptoms but not bad enough to need hospital treatment

[shyVRS245]

Seems that well over 50,000 have tested negative but were they showing any signs or just came into contact with the 5,000 confirmed cases.

[Ootohere]

Those that think they had it in a bad way, or think they might of had as in described in the 2nd post,  but luckily survived and are out and about now without any testing have been done might well be the ones that are very dangerous.

[Lady Elanore]

Can you be tested for the antibodies? It might be useful when it comes to getting back to work. Certainly it might be advantageous to employ freelancers that are known to now be immune 

[PetrolDave]

17 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

Can you be tested for the antibodies?

Not yet, the Government are promising that a test for the antibodies will be available "soon" i.e it's a long way off being freely available on demand.

[shyVRS245]

My antibodies are freely and willingly available to anyone from a medical field that may be interested. PM me if you work for a laboratory or are doing research.

[moley]

This is a bit like John Cleese in the 'Holy Grail' in the part where the crowd want to burn the witch and Cleese says 'she turned me into a newt.....but I got better again'

One of my relatives sent a text to everyone in the family the other day to say that her husband was not well and gone to bed 'I think he's got the coronaviris'. The next day she texts everyone 'he's feeling better today and gone back to work. FFS!

I do recall back in the sixties as a child my father was off work with the flu. This was probably the only time I can remember him not going to work and he said when people say I have had the 'flu' they have probably had a bad cold. He was in bed for 3-4 days and then had a few more days off work to recover. No sick pay, so no money coming in. 

[mac11irl]

2 hours ago, Defenderben said:

So was that a confirmed cv19 or your assumption that you have had it?

 

Not being disrespectful but asking if it was confirmed?

 

never tested.. instead he just went to the gp.. who "refused to test him"... 

[@Lee]

6 minutes ago, mac11irl said:

 

never tested.. instead he just went to the gp.. who "refused to test him"... 

Not forgetting he went to work while ill out of spite.

[Lady Elanore]

I think it would be a selling point for short term work if you could say you had already been infected with C19

[MikeTheThinker]

51 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

I think it would be a selling point for short term work if you could say you had already been infected with C19

 

Might promote your cause if you could could demonstrate you had recovered from it

[essexalan]

Doctors still do not know if you can catch it again. Sorry I don't have a link it was a Doctor speaking on the news.

[Lady Elanore]

I heard them saying that at the beginning of all this too, but lately they seem to think that in the relatively short term you will probably have immunity. 

[J.R.]

6 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

 we should be proud as a Nation that our mortality rates are much lower than France, Spain and particularly Italy.

 

Are you serious??????????????????????

 

I am lost for words, its bad enough putting up with the jingoism during the European cup or whatever its called these days, people are dying across the globe, its not football, the olympics or reality TV.

[NJRJ]

I think they are praying for some immunity for those infected - else we're really deep into the do-do. Once China opens isolation restrictions and IF reliable data comes out we might know more, having to wait for Italy for data is too close to the curve for us.

[PetrolDave]

13 hours ago, essexalan said:

Doctors still do not know if you can catch it again. Sorry I don't have a link it was a Doctor speaking on the news.

They already know that Covid-19 has mutated into 2 strains: Covid19-L and Covid19-S - but if you've had one are you immune to the other?

 

Nobody knows! - as they would say on QI (BBC2 programme for those who have never watched it).

[Tilt]

49 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

They already know that Covid-19 has mutated into 2 strains: Covid19-L and Covid19-S - but if you've had one are you immune to the other?

 

So is that three strains altogether (so far) Dave???........ (19 & 19-L & 19-S)

 

And if you have had either of the three, you are immune to the other two???

 

Just trying to clarify, if known? 

Edited 23 March, 2020 by Tilt

[Chorlton]

An older article, but some information from a respected publication below:

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2236544-coronavirus-are-there-two-strains-and-is-one-more-deadly/

[NJRJ]

Was just typing that up from memory, couldn't find the link. Thanks

 

[Aspman]

Everyone is going to be exposed to the virus in the next 12 months. Most of us will never know we've had it.

 

An antibody test even at cost would seem like a good move for many people if it will let them get back to work. Necessity is the mother of invention so I would expect this to be available as soon as possible although it is likely to be expensive to start with.

 

The UK is going to go though an italy like growth in cases in the next few weeks, this will peak with some scary number then it will come back down just as sharply. Coz tbh you are going to catch this soon so you'll either be dead or immune.

 

This virus will never ever go away as well. It'll mutate and become one of the regular viruses we're infected with forever more..